iPhone's

With the general elections being held this week, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about something else people go crazy over: Cell phones. I don’t know why people care so much about what kind of phone you are using or not. Really I don’t. A few years ago I had just a normal old “captain Kirk” cell phone and it treated me just fine. I made calls and received calls, I sent texts and it received them just as well. Then in 2007 Apple released an iPhone. I already had an iPod and heard people talking about how great this iPhone was so I decided to check it out. Looking this thing over it looked really great except for the $600 dollar price (yes this is what they cost originally). I thought I would never be able to afford such a thing. A month or 2 later I received some back pay from the Navy that I had been waiting on and it was more than I ever expected. I bought a few things for my house and I decided hey why not buy that iPhone for my girlfriend at the time as a surprise. This was my downfall. I couldn’t keep my hands off of it; I just had to play with it. This thing was like nothing I had ever seen. It was like a laptop for your pocket. Ever since then I have been fascinated with the iPhone. I had the iPhone 2 and then I bought the iPhone 3. By this point my friends began to take notice of my phone and they began playing with it. Pretty soon they bought themselves an iPhone. I think just by my friends looking at mine I sold between 8-10. Where’s my royalty check Apple? When Iphone 4 came out I made my reservation and stood in line. I showed up to the Apple store on Bethesda Row at 9am and was walking away around noon with my brand new phone. I have never been let down by the iPhone. When IPhone people see each other they begin discussing automatically what apps they have or if it’s too hard to see because if it has a case on it, the question always is “is it a 4?” It’s like an unspoken brotherhood. What I don’t get is when people see an iPhone user they begin to tell that person how great their phone is. They begin to mention everything they hear on the news or what some guy on some website says. Why? Do you think I’m going to throw my phone on the ground and jump up and down on it and break it to bits because of something your brother’s roommate’s best friend says? To be honest I’m not even sure what over smart phones are out on the market. I really don’t care. I like what I like. Have you ever seen an iPhone person tell somebody how shitty the phone the next guy was using is?

Lawsuits in the US

"Stella Liebeck, of Albuquerque, sued McDonald's in 1992 after spilling a cup of the restaurant's coffee, which burned her lap severely and hospitalized her for a week. Two years later a jury awarded her $160,000 in direct damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, which a court later reduced to $480,000. Both sides appealed and ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed amount. Her actual hospital bill was $11,000."

I feel that lawsuits in the US are totally out of control. People sue and get sued for everything under the sun. what happened to personal responsibility? Coffee is hot, to make it even more obvious, they write it on the plastic cups. if you accidentally burn yourself, it was an accident, deal with it. If I cut myself cutting vegetables, I am not going to sue the company that made the knife. I did it, it was an accident but I caused it and I should take personal responsibility.

I am not against lawsuits in general. I just feel that the settlement should fit the crime. I have a family member who went on a vacation with a friend and her husband. While on vacation, the husband fell into a hole in the ground and broke his neck. The hole was covered with a dark plastic which made it impossible to see. There were no warning signs at all and no way for him to avoid it. He is now paralyzed for life, his wife had to quit her job to take care of him full time. Should he get millions of dollars from the construction company, sure. Why, because he will have millions of dollars in medical bills. If he had fallen in and broke a leg, should he have gotten millions of dollars, absolutely not.

Allowing people to make frivolous lawsuits and rewarding them for it has negative repercussions. It creates a greedy society and sends the message that you don't have to work for your money if you can find someone to sue. In March 2005 Ann Ayala filed a claim against Wendy's franchise owner, asserting that she had found a fingertip in a bowl of chili. It turned out to be untrue, but that is the result of a flawed judicial system. I think that someone should step in and make a law that prohibits these types of law suits. If there was a specific system in place to deal with all lawsuits, we would not have this problem.

Who's Right?

Whether we like to keep our thoughts about it to a minimum, or just pain ignore it, death and dying are a part of every day life. At some time or another, everyone will be faced with death and the all but impossible decisions one must make for the departed. What happens when that person is still with us and who’s body is ravaged by an incurable disease? What if that same person suffered from a psychological disorder for their entire life and is set on ending his or her life, should we facilitate? With endless scenarios that can play out, can there be a set guideline on the prospect of a “mercy killing”? Should it even be legal?

The act of doctor facilitated euthanasia has been practiced since the times of ancient Greeks1. Although the Greeks penned the Hippocratic Oath, mercy killing was a generally accepted practice.[1] It was not until the 1st century when judeo christian beliefs began to influence how people viewed the right to die. In today’s United States, there are four states (Texas, Washington State, Oregon, and Montana) that recognize an individual’s right to die. Of the four, all but one require a court order to proceed with an assisted suicide. Should an individual’s right to die be dictated by the state court system? Should a medical review board be established? Should the right to die be solely up to the individual?

There are so many questions and no real answer. We can look at other, non human, examples though. We have all seen that poor dog, or that mangy cat, who’s clearly at the end of their life. Maybe it can’t walk or hold its bowels anymore, maybe it’s got cancer. Regardless of what the case is we look at that animal and think, “That poor thing is suffering. I’d put it down if it were my animal.” In fact animal euthanasia is viewed as an act of compassion. Should we view our dying with the same compassion? If you were dying, would you ride off into the sunset quietly, or would you ask for a little help to get you there faster?


[1] ProCon.org (1/4/2010) Euthanasia - A Historical Timeline
Retrieved from
http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000130

Gender Specific Roles for Children

Most recently in the news, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been under scrutiny because of the way that they have allowed their daughter Shiloh to express herself as an individual. Most little girls growing up, whether it be because of the families/societies influence or that of the child's own liking, wear the pretty frilly dresses with the bows and ruffled socks. Shiloh, however, has chosen to have a shorter "boyish" hair cut and wear more masculine clothes.
We are in 2010 but still have a very set idea of what and how the ideal child, no matter the sex, should look and act. You don't see many little boys running around holding a doll,walking around in their mother's high heels or wearing pink. Likewise, you rarely ever see a little girl scooting around with her tonka trucks or wanting to play wrestle mania. Does raising your child to be more asexual then gender specific cause a detriment to the child or are you in fact inhibiting the natural progression of the child by not allowing them to express themselves in a manner that they find comfortable?

Abortion: Right Or Wrong?

Abortion has always been a touchy subject. While some rave it right, depending on the woman's circumstances, others feel is flat out WRONG! So, while I'm being honest with you, after all, this is my blog, there is not right or wrong to abortion. Its circumstantial. With that said, I'll share my story with you.

I was 18 and fresh out of high school. A few days after we graduated, I called a close friend of mines because she hadn't called me in some days and that wasn't like her. As we conversed, I realized how shaky this girls voice was. That wasn't normal for her. She always had a deep motherly voice....always so serious. I said "Niki, whats wrong with you?' She proceeded to tell me nothing...Liar! I'm not stupid. She finally broke down and told me the truth. She was indeed pregnant. The child's father was not a good man at all. He would hit her, disrespect her, still lived at home with his parents and this man was pushing thirty! Sad. I asked her would she keep it and she said no. I tried to talk her out of if but it didn't work. She said she wasn't in a place in her life where she could take care of a baby. So, she got a abortion. A few months later, In September, I found out that I was pregnant. The first thing that came to my mind was how much does a abortion cost so I called Niki. Within two weeks of me finding out, I was no longer pregnant. My reason for not keeping that baby was simple: I was 18, had a job but my money was only enough for me, I wanted to go to college and enjoy my life. I had another friend who upon finding out she was pregnant, kept her baby. She was my age but she felt she was in a good place in her life and wanted her child.

So Like I said, in my opinion, the words right and wrong don't apply to the term abortion. Its all about what your going through; where you are in your life. You could be forty years old and still not ready for a baby. Its a huge responsibility. Look at Marylin Monroe, she had plenty of abortions. So many that I'm surprised that she was able to still conceive! Hundreds of women of all ages get pregnant everyday and hundreds of women of have abortions every day. So much so that it seems like its become a fundamental of every day living. Sad to say but true. Before you judge a woman on her choice not to keep her baby, look at her life. Ask her about her circumstances, what else she has to consider. You just may agree with her choice and if not, know that its her life and she'll have to face the consequence for that action.

Is America poisoning your drinking water?

I mean come on who doesn’t want clean water, who doesn’t want unnatural chemicals in the body that are detrimental to the average person’s health. Well welcome to your drinking water a container for dangerous chemicals. One chemical deliberately added to our drinking water is Fluoride which is supposed to help prevent tooth decay. Let me give you a little background history on this dangerous chemical first of all it not natural the origins of fluoride is the byproduct of the pesticide industry. Fluoride have been banned in many continents in the world as its side effects are too dangerous such as hip fractures, neurological damage, ADD/ADHD, lead poisoning, Alzheimer's Disease, birth defects, skeletal fluorosis, dental fluorosis, early onset of puberty, immune system suppression, bone cancer and other rare forms of cancer. But America thinks its ok to give people as long as it’s just a little bit. Many scientist and organizations around the world and even in the usa are against the use of fluoride but the question is why does America still pump it in our drinking water ?



Sources:
http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm
http://www.lovethetruth.com/truth_about_fluoride.htm
http://casescorner.com/id12.html